


The person I pretend to be

by Abandoned Melodies (magicpiano)



Category: Haikyuu!!, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Cannibalism, Childhood Friends, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25589680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicpiano/pseuds/Abandoned%20Melodies
Summary: Daichi’s first interaction with a ghoul happened when he was seven years old.This is an abandoned work!
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi
Kudos: 8





	The person I pretend to be

**Author's Note:**

> This story is unfinished and probably never will be. I have stopped working on this project and it is very unlikely I will start working on it again. This also does not have the level of spelling and grammar quality used in my finished stories. Please read this story with that in mind. Thank you.
> 
> Click [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicpiano/) for my finished/alive wips pseudo. 
> 
> Warnings:  
> Murder  
> Cannibalism

Daichi was seven years old when he learned what real fear was.

His mother had come running into his bedroom while he was asleep and grabbed him. Pushing her son to her chest she ran out their apartment door and started climbing the stairs toward the roof level.

“Moma?” Daichi was startled into wakefulness, his confusion evident in his voice. “Where are we going?”

“Outside.” She spoke gently into her son's hair as she attempted to open the normalcy locked roof access door. “We are going to go look at the stars, that will be fun. Right Daichi?”

Daichi was too young to notice how she managed to open the door, but he would wonder about it years later.

His mother pushed them both outside into the cold night air and closed the door behind them. She told Daichi to hide with her behind the air conditioning units that littered the roof.

Daichi brought his legs close to his body and shivered, his pajamas were not made for keeping someone warm through a night like this. For the first time that night he had an opportunity to look over at his mother. Her face was ragged and her eyes darted around the roof almost in a panic.

“Moma? We can’t see the stars from here?” Daichi remarked remembering his mother's earlier comment.

She brought her arms around him and Daichi huddled closer to her worth to protect him from the night. “Your right Daichi. I am sorry, I lied.” She brought her lips to his forehead gently kissing him and stroking his hair. “But, we need to hide up here for a little while.”

Turning his head upwards in his mother's direction he tried to understand this confusing night. “What are we hiding from?”

“The monsters.” 

And Daichi felt fear.

* * *

Daichi had begun to fall asleep when the men broke the roof door and came towards them. His mother was very relieved to see them, Daichi was intimidated. The men forced them to do some type of blood test before they were allowed back into the building. Daichi didn’t like the idea of a needle coming in his direction, but he sensed the urgency in the atmosphere and didn't complain, but his mother still went first. It was about the same as getting his finger pricked at the doctor's office, but he could tell this test was monumentally more important. He hoped he passed it.

The men seemed satisfied with the test and guided them back into the apartment building. They even gave Daichi a band aid with dogs on it for his finger.

They told his mother the danger had passed, and they had taken care of it. Daichi wondered just what was so dangerous.

He found out sooner than he would have liked. His parents talked in hushed voices at night about the women that lived two floors below them. Daichi thought she was nice, she always gave him candy if they met in the hallways. Apparently she used to bring dates to her apartment and eat them alive. When the men came to apprehender her a fight broke out and the old man next door to her died.

Daichi had liked him too. 

Nobody moved into those two apartments for a long time. Even though it never reached their part of the building many other tenants escaped the building too. Daichi found himself glad his mother took him away from the fight. 

He didn't want to see that the nice woman was really a monster, but he couldn't help but wonder if the women gave him candy just because she couldn't eat it herself.

* * *

Even at his young age Dachi was able to notice that things began to change after that, despite how his father tried to pretend differently. His mother held his hand just a little tighter when they went outside and pulled him close, away from strangers. She looked at everyone suspiciously like they would all turn on her at any moment.

His mother woke him up some nights, not purposely, but with the sound of her cries and shouts. Some nights she didn't sleep at all.

When his parents told him they were moving out into the countryside he wasn't surprised, he felt the change coming. When his mother told him that rural areas had fresher air and no monsters he was more relieved than he would let her know.

* * *

Their new home was larger than their apartment back in Tokyo, full of empty space and dusty corners forgotten by the previous owners. His mother spent most of her time attempting to make this foreign place seem like home. Dachi suspected some of this was her trying to keep busy as she attempted to forget everything they had left behind.

His mother reassured him he would make many new friends at his new school. He didn't doubt this, he never had trouble getting along with the other children in his class. He was sociable and athletic enough to be able to play any game selected for recess that day, so all the other boys were excited to pick him for their teams during gym. The real problem was that they were moving at the beginning of the summer break. He didn't know anyone in this town, and wouldn't get the chance to meet anyone his own age till classes started up again.

During the afternoons when his mother began to get restless with unpacking he took to the backyard. The sun was warm against his skin that had grown paler in the previous months in which his mother kept him inside more often than not.

Those afternoons he explored the new environment that stretched out before him in the same curious way any boy his age would. He wandered through the trees past his yard with no knowledge of where it would lead him.

It was because of these daily trips past his family's property that he met Sugawara.

When Dachi first saw him he was bouncing a ball against the trunk of a tree with skillful accuracy.

“That's really cool! I can never get the ball to hit the same place each time!” Daichi didn't mean to startle the boy with his presence, but his surprise was evident from the sound that escaped his lips. The ball had bounced back and hit the kid in the arm before finally falling to the ground. 

Dachi felt himself winch at the way the other boy flinched. Once the other child looked up Dachi could get a good view of him. His hair was a soft shade of grey, his eyes were a shining golden brown and he looked as terrified as his mother did on the cold winter night she carried him to the roof.

Dachi felt a rush of memory of what it felt like to be so afraid. 

“Are…” He tried to speak, to reassure the person in front of him but the words seemed to fail at creating meaning. Up until that moment, fear was a feeling that only monsters could bring up, but that wasn't true. He too could create such feelings in others. 

“Are you okay?” It seemed like a stupid thing to say, even to Dachi’s own ears. Of course he wasn't okay, he didn’t look okay in any way.

The tight atmosphere that held within that moment snapped. The boy seemed to come back toward reality and so quickly his expression was replaced with a shy smile and kind attitude that took over his whole body. 

“Yes!” He nodded quickly, his grey hair hitting the light shining through the tree's leaves. “I am fine, I just didn’t expect anyone else to be here.”

“Oh!” Daichi felt a rush of embarrassment at his own mistake. His mother would be mortified at his manners. “I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No! No!” The boy tried to wave off his concerns. “It was my mistake, I should have been paying attention.” 

Daichi knew this was a lie, he was clearly the one at fault, but he supposed the boy's own mother had hammered in those manners as well. He didn't know what else to say as the quiet between them became steadily more awkward.

“Well, I should get going now.” The boy leaned over to retrieve his forgotten ball from the grass. 

“Wait!” Daichi wasn't sure exactly why, but something about this encounter seemed ethereal. He had a feeling that if that boy left now, that would be the end of it, and for some reason that was not what daichi wanted. “Why not stay, it is more fun to play together isn't it?” 

Daichi could hear the bugs crinkling filling their silence.

The boy hesitated, turning toward him. Clearly unsure how to respond. He opened his mouth clearly choosing his words very carefully. “My mother told me not to talk to strangers.”

“Oh,” Daichi’s own mother had told him the same thing, with even more force these last few months. But wasn't that the reason they moved from the city? It was safer here. 

He knew he should let it go, it was rude to keep pushing but Daichi had to push. He could picture this boy playing alone in the forest just as he had been only a few moments before and it made some part of his heart ache. His eyes were too kind to be left alone.

“But were not really strangers, right?” Daichi asked, “you live around here don’t you? That makes us neighbours!”

A small smile bloomed on the boy's face. “Yes I suppose that is true.” 

“You want to play catch?” Daichi gestured toward the ball in the other child’s hand. “Oh, my name is Daichi Sawamura by the way.”

The other boy looked up, his eyes shining in the sun. “I’m Koushi Sugawara.”

* * *

When Daichi told his mother he had made a friend that day she was excited. Rather than continue unpacking their moving boxes she insisted that they should pay their neighbours a visit the next day.

Daichi wholeheartedly agreed to this plan. He hadn't made any future plans with Koushi, so adults meeting up seems like a good excuse as any to play with Koushi again.

The next day an excited Dachi guided his mother through the still unfamiliar streets toward the home he had seen Koushi walk back toward when the sun had started to go down the other day.

His mother had let him knock on the door, partly because her hands were full with the welcome cake the two of them had made last night and partly because Daichi was clearly extremely excited to see his new friend again.

It took almost two minutes for someone to come to the door. Daichi had thought that perhaps their knock had gone unheard and wanted to knock again but his mother insisted to do so would be rude. They were about to leave assuming that despite the car in the driveway, no one was home, when the door creaked open.

The face of a petite pale woman peaked through the door. She had the same hair shade of suga and a near identical smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, I am very unlikely to finish this story, anything is possible, but please don’t expect it. 
> 
> Click [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicpiano/) for my finished/alive wips pseudo.
> 
> If you want to know more about what I had planned for this story, feel free to ask.
> 
> [here](https://feliswhiteflag.tumblr.com/) is my blog! And [here](https://lesbianjolllly.tumblr.com/) is my Les Mis side blog!


End file.
